City of Palms Prep basketball: No. 1 rated player shows they can hoop it up north of the border

Andrew Wiggins and Huntington Prep defeated Houston-HCYA in the Signature Series bracket on day 3 of the City of Palms Classic.

Huntington Prep's Andrew Wiggins looks at the scoreboard in their game against HCYA in the Signature Series bracket on day 3 of the City of Palms Classic at Bishop Verot High School in Fort Myers.

FORT MYERS - Fans can catch a glimpse of the potential top pick in the 2014 NBA Draft this week at the City of Palms Classic.

Though his team isn't in the main bracket, Huntington (W.Va.) Prep senior Andrew Wiggins delighted the crowd with his overall athleticism and 31 points in a Signature Series victory on Thursday.

There's no doubt the offspring of a former NBA player and Olympic sprinter is the best high school player in the nation. ESPN, Rivals, Scout and every other recruiting service say so. Yet America's top recruit isn't from the country where he's ranked No. 1.

Wiggins has perfected a different form of a crossover. The 6-foot-8 forward is part of a wave of Canadian high school players who have come south of the border to better their moves to the basket. It's a sign of a hoops revolution in a country where pucks and frozen ponds typically dominate the sports scene.

"There's more emphasis on basketball than there was five or 10 years ago," said Clark Francis, recruiting analyst for website HoopScoop. "If you're good at basketball in Canada, most those guys don't stay in Canada. They come here."

Wiggins is following the path several of his countrymen — hone your skills in Canada's ever-improving youth programs, play at a U.S. prep school and earn a scholarship to one of America's best college basketball programs.

If he continues improving, Wiggins will follow those footsteps into the pros. In the past two NBA Drafts, five Canadian-born players who attended U.S. colleges have been selected in the first round.

Two of those draft picks also played in the City of Palms. Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph were seniors at Henderson (Nev.)-Findlay Prep when the Pilots visited Fort Myers in 2009. The two also were teammates at the University of Texas before being selected in the 2011 NBA draft.

Another Findlay Prep graduate, Anthony Bennett, is one of the best freshman players in the country for No. 21 UNLV. Current Texas sophomore Myck Kabongo, who isn't playing as the NCAA looks into an eligibility issue, also played in the 2009 City of Palms with Newark (N.J.)-St. Benedict's.

All four former City of Palms players, along with Wiggins, were raised in Toronto.

"Since I started doing this in the late '90s we've seen more Canadian kids coming down," Rivals.com recruiting analyst Eric Bossi said. "I don't know that they weren't always there. I think there were always good players. It took those first players coming down here to get that exposure and make that push."

The popularity of basketball took off in Canada when the NBA added the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies (now in Memphis) in the 1990s, around the time the current Canadian stars were born. The players grew up idolizing NBA all-star and current L.A. Laker Steve Nash who was raised in British Columbia.

As basketball has grown, there has been a push to improve the sport nationally. Canada has strengthened its youth programs, and Nash is now the general manager of the country's senior men's team.

The moves have worked. The under-17 boys finished seventh in the world championships this summer, and the under-18 team went 4-1 at the world championship qualifier. The junior boys are fifth in the FIBA world rankings.

"It's been a real source of pride for Canadian basketball," ESPN recruiting analyst Dave Telep said. "We have to start paying attention to what Canada does in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. Our biggest threat right now is Spain and Greece and Argentina, but we're not a long ways away from Canada being a medal contender."

The rise in basketball stars dates back to the late 1970s when Canada loosened its restrictions on immigrants. The country saw an influx of African and Caribbean immigrants, and many of today's top players come from those bloodlines.

Wiggins mother is from Barbados, though she and Wiggins father both attended Florida State. Marita Payne-Wiggins won two silver medals for Canada as a sprinter in the 1984 Olympics. Wiggins father, Mitchell Wiggins was a first-round NBA pick and averaged 10 points a game for his six-year career as a shooting guard with Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia.

"If you're an African kid from Nigeria or some place like that, you can't get an American visa," Francis said. "So you go to Canada where there's kind of a pipeline, and that's how you get to the United States.

"Sometimes it's second, third generation. You come from unknown part of the world to Canada, and your kids might turn out to be good players."

As the demographics diversify, basketball is starting to catch up with Canada's national pastime in popularity.

"Which sport works best?" Francis said. "If you're a 6-8 athletic kid like Andrew Wiggins, your body, your skill set is more suited to play basketball than it is to play hockey."

Wiggins was as good as advertised Thursday. He hit 15 of his 22 shots, many of them high-flying, rim-rocking dunks, to finish with 31 points. He added eight rebounds and three blocks.

The gym was packed Thursday with fans, media, scouts and college coaches — including Leonard Hamilton, head coach of Florida State which is said to be one of Wiggins' top two choices. Bishop Verot figures to buzzing again Saturday night as Wiggins Huntington (W.Va.) Prep face Jacksonville-Arlington Country Day at 7 p.m., and the high school basketball world gets another glimpse of its top-rated player.

That's all fine with Wiggins. The senior is not only aware of the attention he attracts, but also welcomes it. "There were a lot of people here," Wiggins said Thursday. "That's my type of atmosphere. I like to shine and do all the stuff I can do."